Little Rock VA Built Solar Panels Knowing They Would Be ‘Relocated’

KATV Ch. 7’s Elicia Dover reports:

The parking lot at the VA Hospital in Little Rock is filled with more than 7,000 solar panels that have remained turned off since the construction of those panels more than two years ago.

In Feb. 2012, the VA designated an $8 million dollar grant to build a 1.8 megawatt solar PV system in the parking lot of the Little Rock VA.

Also approved by the VA in Aug. of 2012 was a parking garage. The proposed site of that parking garage was one of the lots in which the solar panels were scheduled to be built.

By that point, VA officials say they had already spent money on the design of the solar panels and went ahead with construction. Contractors broke ground on the solar panel project in Jan. 2013.

VA officials told Channel 7 News they proceeded with building the solar panels on that site, knowing the panels would likely have to be torn down for the parking garage. Plans for the parking garage included relocating the solar panels to the top of that parking garage.

When asked why officials didn’t hold off on building the panels, the VA project manager for the parking garage said it was because of design.

“Well, we were already deep into the design of the photovoltaic system,” said Jon Miller, VA Projects engineer.

The VA’s energy manager, Marty Risner said they did not go back for a redesign of the project to include the parking garage.

“You’d have to go back and take another look at the overall cost benefit of having to redo that, versus just going ahead with what we’ve got and understand that at some point they’re going to have to be relocated,” Risner said.

Channel 7 News asked if it was a waste of money for something to be built, knowing it would have be torn down and relocated. Miller said timing was an issue.

“Well, it’s unfortunate that the two projects overlapped like they did, but the parking garage project was submitted for approval a couple of years earlier and it took a while for it to finally be processed and approved,” Miller said.

Even though Risner said “the short answer is yes,” there was a way the panels could have simply not been built, it was a group decision to go ahead and build the panels.

“I know that decision was made locally and it was not made by just one person, but it was a team that took a look at this and we made the decision to move forward,” Risner said.

When asked if it would have been more cost effective to not the build the panels at all, Risner said cost wasn’t the only factor.

“You’d have to back and look at the analysis. There were some sunk costs, but cost was only part of what was considered. There’s also project delivery that has to be considered,” Risner said.

The VA would not release the estimated cost to tear down and relocate the panels, saying it’s sensitive information, tied to the parking garage bid.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES
While the Little Rock VA solar panels remain turned off, solar panels at the North Little Rock VA saved the hospital more than $100,000 in utility costs.

In North Little Rock, the process to go online in 2013 was fairly simple. The city passed an ordinance and the power company didn’t require much.

“We were able to go online. They did require a couple of things, one was some pole top switches that could be disconnected, but there wasn’t any kind of interconnect agreement or study by North Little Rock electric that was required,” said Risner.

But the power company connected to the Little Rock VA Hospital, Entergy, did require an impact study. With so many hands in the project, it’s something that has become a lengthy process since the project broke ground in 2013.

“I wouldn’t necessarily point a finger. There is a process that has to occur and that process takes time. Certainly if you go back and do some Monday morning quarterbacking, you could probably identify areas where you could improve this process,” said Risner.

The study brought to light necessary engineering changes to the project.

After the study was completed, 7 months went by until Entergy and the VA finalized their “interconnection agreement.”

Since then, the VA has been waiting another 7 months for the contractor to re-engineer the drawings to fit Entergy’s requirements. So far, they don’t have the drawings.

“The contractor had the action to perform and so far we haven’t seen the evidence of performance yet,” said Risner.

They’re aiming to have the solar panel project up and running by fall of this year. The parking garage project isn’t scheduled to be completed until 2016.

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